Federal court rules South Carolina can use congressional map previously declared unconstitutional

A federal court said Thursday that it will allow a US House election in South Carolina for Republican Rep. Nancy Mace’s seat to proceed under a map it had previously declared unconstitutional.

In a brief order, the judges in the case said they had little choice, given a fast-approaching deadline to prepare for the primary election for the state’s down-ballot contests.

Last year, the three-judge panel held that the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature had “exiled” more than 30,000 Black residents from the coastal 1st Congressional District, which is anchored in Charleston County, in what the court called a “bleaching” to benefit Republicans. That amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, the judges concluded.